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Tag Archives: Gangseo-gu

Three things stick out when you arrive at Yangcheon Hyanggyo Station. First of all, there’s the enormous field of construction to the west, which we also mentioned in our visits to Balsan and Sinbanghwa Stations. Second is the sizeable CJ Gimpo Factory to the east. Third is the not-unpleasant bourgeois atmosphere surrounding the neighborhood’s clean…

Almost immediately, Hwagok produced one of the most unique, most unusual, and, least kid sister-friendly businesses we’ve turned up in the course of this project. About a block and a half down Gangseo-ro (강서로) from Exit 5 was 곤충박물관 충우 (Insect Museum Chung-u), easily spotted by the sign outside with pictures of several different butterflies…

I had expected Gaehwa to be one of the dullest stations in the entire course of this project, a visit that I’d finish up in under an hour and have written in less than that. Its most prominent feature is, after all, the fact that it’s the headquarters of the Seoul Metro Line 9 Corporation,…

Exits 4 and 5 at Sinbanghwa Station are closed off; they lead toward the huge expanse of land between here and Yangcheon Hyanggyo and Balsan that is in the process of being developed into a massive new complex of high-rise apartments and retail spaces. I first emerged from Exit 6 instead, where there was a…

Apologies to anyone who lives in Jeungmi, but y’all’s neighborhood is boring. This is the kind of neighborhood that is typically mentioned when Seoul’s urban fabric is criticized for being too bland, too monotonous, too repetitive. In general, that criticism is unfair and inaccurate, as I’ve said before and as readers of this blog will…